Accessing CommuniGate Pro LDAP from Outlook and MacOS Address Book

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CommuniGate Pro's built in support for Directory and the LDAP Protocol makes it possible for LDAP clients to directly access useful server information. The most common use is Mail User Agent auto-lookup or auto-complete addressing, or user/accounts directory searching. These examples are based on the default configuration of CommuniGate Pro. There are server side considerations, access controls, and customization options that administrators should investigate to learn more about the information that can be returned to subscribers of the system.

Outlook 2003's LDAP Client

I have not found the Outlook LDAP client very friendly. This experience is probably different and configured differently when using Outlook with Active Directory. Everyone I know who has configured this has expressed some sort of unhappiness with the Outlook LDAP client's user interface because of limited sort and search options when the query results are presented. However it does work and can be useful to configure if all of your accounts are not in your CommuniGate Pro Contacts Address Book

This is how I configured the Outlook 2003 LDAP client.

From Outlook -> Tool -> Email Accounts...



Add a New Directory or Address Book -> Internet Directory Service (LDAP) -> Next



Server Name: cgp.mydomain.com
I select my server requires me to login and add my user and pass - I do not select SPA authentication (won''t work)



I click more settings and add my searchbase: ou=people,dc=cgp,dc=mydomain,dc=com,o=my company (ou and o are defaults)



Then I am not certain why but I need to exit outlook and re-open it again before it will be available.

To test the Access I open the Outlook LDAP Client Interface from the menu Tools -> Address Book -> Show Names from the: -> cgp.communigate.com (to match my example above)



This presents you with the directory data, but in my opinion not in the most user friendly format. The complaints I have received about the Outlook LDAP client range from sorting the lookups and limited searching, but I have never had a problem with the basic functionality.

The MacOS Address Book LDAP Client

The configuration for the MacOS Address Book LDAP client is similar to the Outlook example above. Open the Address Book -> Preferences... menu and configure the LDAP preference item.





My examples do not show ssl/tls configurations, but CommuniGate Pro is capable of serving LDAP with an encrypted port if needed. The LDAP configuration in CommuniGate Pro can be customized. This could change your Search Base string in your client configuration. The Directory browser administrator's tool can be used to test the LDAP configuration. Another configuration detail to consider is that it is also possible to optionally not keep your CommuniGate Pro LDAP information in sync with your local CommuniGate Pro settings.

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